Raised To Lead

Before stepping through the doors of her first TeenPact class, Allison Johnson (Weaver) viewed civic engagement through a distant lens.

Like many students, she didn’t see civics  as something that applied to her and her life. It felt like a world away from her day-to-day activities, a topic she knew about but didn’t necessarily want to  explore. How could civics have anything to do with her daily life or her future?

Discovering a Mission

Everything changed, however, during her first TeenPact Four Day Class.  It wasn’t just the content that caught her attention; it was the culture.

 “I gravitated towards the poise and maturity of the staffers,” Allison recalls. “Their eagerness to teach immediately changed my attitude toward the program.” 

Seeing peers who were only a few years older than her conducting themselves with such excellence and joyful servant leadership inspired her.  Suddenly, civics wasn’t just another subject to be studied—it was a mission to be lived.

Redefining Leadership

As the week progressed, Allison began to realize that the leadership she admired in the staff wasn’t an unreachable personality trait, but a spiritual and professional discipline. TeenPact’s mission is to ignite a passion for leadership  by training youth to understand that they are called to engage the culture for the glory of God.

For Allison, this meant taking the things she knew and turning them into something she did.

One of the most profound shifts in her journey was her understanding of where leadership comes from. 

“Seeing people I admired encourage me to take a step in leadership, both in and out of TeenPact, impacted me greatly,” she says. “This small gesture of encouragement transformed my philosophy of leadership—learning that leaders are not just born, but can be raised.” 

This realization moved her from being a bystander to an active participant, understanding that she had a responsibility to use her voice and her talents to serve her community and her Creator.

Putting Faith into Practice

Today, Allison’s life is a testament to the idea that civics is something you do with intentionality and excellence. She has taken the skills she honed through TeenPact —communication, discipleship, and professional poise—and applied them to the real world. 

She currently curates marketing and promotional materials for a State Representative’s campaign, ensuring that clear communication helps bridge the gap between representatives and the people they serve.

Her journey hasn’t stopped with her own success. Allison now spends her time encouraging her peers to step into their own leadership roles. She aspires to serve as a communications coordinator on a campaign one day, using her skills to shape the cultural conversation.

Allison’s story is a beautiful example of what happens when a student stops seeing leadership as a title and starts seeing it as a calling to serve. Through TeenPact, she didn’t just find a career path; she found the tools to turn her passion into impact.